New packaging plant, 280 jobs, coming to Valley

N.J. packaging company lured to Lower Macungie with $3.4 million in state loans, grants.

August 29, 2012|By Spencer Soper, Of The Morning Call

A New Jersey company will move a pharmaceutical packaging plant from New Jersey to Lehigh County, where it is expected to create 283 jobs over the next three years, officials announced Wednesday.

Quality Packaging Specialists International is moving a facility from Bergen County to Industrial Park Way in Lower Macungie Township. It is moving into an existing 157,000-square-foot warehouse, where it will invest $10 million for improvements, according to the state.

The state offered the company $3.4 million in loans and grants to lure it to Pennsylvania. The company is hiring office workers now and expects to hire production staff, including machinists and mechanics, as soon as this fall when it opens the plant, state officials said.

Wage information was not released. On average, machinists in the Lehigh Valley earn $41,190 annually and industrial machine mechanics earn $51,840 a year, according to the state Bureau of Labor Statistics.

QPSI represents the second company related to the pharmaceutical industry to enter the Lehigh Valley this year. Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo, which has U.S. headquarters in Parsippany, N.J., opened a packaging plant in Bethlehem Township earlier this year.

Luring companies in the pharmaceutical industry has been an economic goal in the region for the past several years, said Don Cunningham, CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp., which helped recruit both QPSI and Daiichi Sankyo to the Valley.

"We're excited about getting pharmaceutical here," Cunningham said. "That's an industry sector that is almost recession proof and it's a growth area as our population keeps aging. Those will be strong employers for years to come."

The company has more than 1,200 employees at locations in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, including one in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, that employs 139 people.

QPSI represents the latest business recruiting win for the Valley, which has seen several companies skip over the Delaware River from New Jersey. It's less expensive for businesses to operate in the Lehigh Valley due to lower taxes, and the region is still close to large metropolitan markets.

In April, drink-maker Ocean Spray began construction of a $110 million bottling plant in Upper Macungie, which will replace the company's aging facility in Bordentown, N.J.

The 315,000-square-foot plant is expected to bring 165 jobs to the region when it opens in September 2013.

Last year, the chemical company Avantor Performance Materials moved its headquarters and 180 workers from Phillipsburg to Stabler Corporate Center in Upper Saucon Township.

To attract QPSI, the state Department of Community and Economic Development offered a $500,000 grant, $100,000 in job training assistance, $566,000 in tax credits and a $2.25 million loan for equipment.

"We are excited for the start of an expanded pharmaceutical packaging operation at QPSI," the company's founder and CEO Mike Ricketts said in a news release. "The physical assets being deployed to delight pharmaceutical manufacturing customers, coupled with recruitment and highly technical training of local talent, underscore our commitment to investing in Pennsylvania."